


Dickensian

by unspeakable3



Series: welcome to the most noble and ancient house of black [76]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Black Family-centric (Harry Potter), Bleak House, Dickensian, Drabble, Drabble Collection, Gen, London, Number Twelve Grimmauld Place, References to Dickens, The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black, Wordcount: 100-1.000
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-17
Updated: 2019-11-17
Packaged: 2021-02-08 01:57:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 508
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21468184
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unspeakable3/pseuds/unspeakable3
Summary: This is the Bleak House of Black.
Relationships: Black Family & Black Family (Harry Potter)
Series: welcome to the most noble and ancient house of black [76]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1395592
Kudos: 19





	Dickensian

London. The festive period lately over, and the Minister flushing himself into the Ministry. Particularly dismal scenes, even for January. As much slush piles up at the edges of the pavements as if every dingy snowman in England had marched on the capital to air his grievances but had died a dreadful melty sort of death before said grievances had been aired. Bins overflowing with brightly-coloured wrapping paper and stinking kebab meat. A pigeon pecking morosely at a frozen crust of bread. Forgotten scraps of tinsel lying desolate in muddy puddles, once-gaudy trappings beaten back to dullness by a stampede of grey-robed and grey-umbrellaed office workers trudging ever onward to their daily grind.

Rain everywhere. Rain up the Thames and down the Thames. Rain on Hampstead Heath and in Hyde Park. Rain against the windows of the Ministry, where the Magical Maintenance Department work overtime to keep the enchanted windows displaying cheerful sunshine instead of the incessant depressing grey reality. Rain against the windows of the Muggle Houses of Parliament, whose Members don’t enjoy such privileges. Rain upon the roof of stone cathedrals to gods and glass cathedrals to men; rain dripping from gutters; rain oozing out of clogged drains at the side of every pavement. Rain in the eyes of ancient wizards clutching walking sticks with gnarled fingers; rain drenching the hair of the hag attempting to remain inconspicuous as she seeks the Leaky’s warmth; rain soaking the toes of little children darting about the skirts of Diagon’s valiant shoppers.

Dismal January is dismalest and the wet rain is wettest around Grimmauld Place. The weather hangs heavy over the Blacks’ ancestral home like a voluminous Dementor draping its voluminous robes over the roof and down the walls and past each window and door. It taps against the brickwork, seeking out and seeping through every breach of the house’s Noble and Most Ancient Defenses, filling the once-majestic home with a dampness and a dankness. It is good for the Dementor community that this desolateness is merely caused by a meteorological phenomenon: Walburga Black would be able to suck more joy from even the most experienced Dementor than any Dementor would be able to suck from Walburga Black.

Walburga Black, Mistress of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black, sits in her Noble and Most Ancient Chair beside the Noble and Most Ancient Window and watches the rain. It beats incessantly against the glass as if seeking refuge from its own wild wetness, though Mistress Black has never been one to offer a place of shelter. The decrepit house-elf dithers, struggling to determine whether the gloomy weather is gloomy enough to warrant lighting the lamps; he doesn’t wish to face his Mistress’s wrath for either failing to attend to her needs or for wasting the gas. His creaking limbs creep down the staircase and he gazes at the decapitated heads of his ancestors in the hope that he might be divinely inspired by their great service to this Noble and Most Ancient House. They do not heed him.


End file.
